Despite Ovie Ejaria's opener in Suwon, Young Lions suffer narrow defeat to hosts

England Under-20s suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of hosts South Korea in their second game of the Continental Cup.

The Young Lions came into the game on the back of an impressive 8-1 victory over Nigeria just 24 hours earlier and head coach Paul Williams named a different starting line-up as a result.

And it had the desired impact as Liverpool midfielder Ovie Ejaria opened the scoring after 14 minutes. with a shot inside the area deflected over the Korean keeper Bumkeun Song. The chance came after a swift move down the right, which ended with a neat back-heel from Dominic Calvert-Lewin into the path of Ejaria, who registered his second goal for England.

That sparked the hosts into life though and Youhyeon Lee levelled things up just after the half-hour mark, before adding his second and a Korean winner in the 70th minute.

England strung some patches of late pressure together in the search for an equaliser, only to be left frustrated in what will be another important experience for the Young Lions before they return to South Korea for next summer’s U20 World Cup.

The third and final game of the Continental Cup sees England face Iran on Saturday.

England U20s: 1 Freddie Woodman (Newcastle United), 3 Jonjoe Kenny (Everton), 15 Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), 4 Jake Clarke-Salter (c) (Bristol Rovers, loan from Chelsea), 16 Tafari Moore (FC Utrecht, loan from Arsenal), 8 Josh Onomah (Tottenham Hotspur), 18 Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal), 20 Ovie Ejaria (Liverpool), 12 Ademola Lookman (Charlton Athletic), 10 Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), 21 Harrison Chapman (Sheffield United, loan from Middlesbrough).

Substitutes: 24 Louis Reed (Sheffield United) for Ejaria 70, 11 Dominic Solanke (Chelsea) for Onomah 78

Substitutes not used: 13 Dean Henderson (Grimsby Town, loan from Manchester United), 22 Luke Southwood (Reading), 2 Kyle Walker-Peters (Tottenham Hotspur), 6 Dael Fry (Rotherham United, loan from Middlesbrough), 5 Taylor Moore (Bristol City), 14 Callum Connolly (Everton), 9 Adam Armstrong (Barnsley, loan from Newcastle United)

Goals: Ovie Ejaria 14